WARNING : LONG WINDED STORY BELOW. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT INTEND TO SLEEP. VIEW THE GALLERY INSTEAD.

Just last week, Daniel and Jacob approached approached me on MSN, asking me whether I’m interested to visit a nice waterfall just over the other side of town.

Apparently Daniel, Jacob and the rest of the bicycling crew had decided to cycle to Gabai Waterfalls (ok, some call it Sungai Gabai Waterfalls) on Deepavali holiday. It was very thoughtful of them to have me (and many others) in mind for this outing. I’m more than delighted to join but I’ll be driving my lil’ol white steel steed instead. My purpose? Practise my photography skills of course! I always look forward for new places to have a some shutter-action.

So there was I, woke up damn early in the morning…….. ok well, it’s not something difficult since I’ve been waking up at pretty much the same time on daily basis. I played a little game and relax myself (after a sleep?) a while before getting geared up for the trip.

*by now you’re wondering………WHY STILL NO PICTURES YET?!??! Of course la, this is my blog mah. If you want pictures, can go straight to the gallery. If you’re interested in the outing, continue to read la. *

I got a little bit lost at Cheras area, kept Wesley waiting for about 10 minutes or so. Funny thing was when we met, both of us just realize neither of us know how to get there! Heck, nmind la we’re smart boys, we know how to get there la. No problemo! Wrong route at most make U-turn only mah, right? First stop, a place called Look Out Point!

While we’re getting there, we met the our cycling crew. Damn, if I wasn’t driving I would just snap a few pics of their moving asses. Hehe. “Cheeky” leh? Need BEFORE and AFTER shots like Marie Claire slimming program ads mah.

Well anyway, back to the journey. After driving quite a distance we finally came to a place where we think we’re lost again, probably for the 5th time or so. This time we parked our car and has a quick discussion and we decided to go straight ahead, after driving off a bit then only we realize that the signboard was blocked by a lorry, nonsense fella.

OK, so this time the signboard said Sungai Gabai Waterfall is at a 30 – 40 degree angled arrow. With this, it pretty much look like there’s going to be a Y cross not far ahead where we have to turn right. I saw a bridge on the left that leads to some place but no signboards there so I went ahead. After about 15 minutes driving, and definitely more than the 6km indicated by the signboard, it’s clear that we’re lost………AGAIN! This time we spoke to one of the people in the village to get some directions, it seems like the waterfall is accessed via that bridge that I saw earlier. What was the problem here? DAMN SIGNBOARD! If it was a right turn, please indicate it with a 90 degree ARROW to the RIGHT! People who make signboards need some common sense. *I’ll save my rants about Malaysian signboards for some other time*

Now that we’re on the right track, reaching the place was a breeze. See, clever boys can find unknown places wan. No problem! Now besides me and Wesley, 4 other lovely ladies were with us. All of us were new to this place but the sound of the waterfall was definitely calling us from afar.

As you can see from the photo on your right, we’re not the only people there. It didn’t take long before more people arrive at the waterfall. By the time we left which was around noon, the cars parked stretched at least a few hundred meters down the narrow road.

It was a beautiful sight, not just the waterfall but to see many faces from Malaysia coming together to enjoy the beauty of nature, regardless of age, race or gender.

It’s not surprising that this place is packed, after all it’s a holiday. I look around, I see parents and their kids at play. I see teenagers and youths enjoy the cooling streams of water. It wasn’t easy for me to take good shots of this place either, seeing that people are walking around and about this place.

I was surprised to see many familiies lugging their kitchenwares and goods around. It was as if they’re bringing their entire arsenal of cooking utensils to the jungle, it was as if they’re here to feed and army. I was even more surprised at how they’re able to lug their inventory up the few hundred steps of stairs.

Speaking of stairs, I was curious about what’s going on at the end of the flight of stairs. I saw many people went up but they never came down. I tried my best to make my way up there. I made at least 3 stops while on the way up, a clear sign that I need to build my stamina. It wasn’t easy lugging around the camera, the bag of lenses and a tripod up a long flight of stairs but it was a good exercise for lazy bums like myself.

So what’s there are the top? More PEOPLE! It was as if a small colony had populated this area. Man, you should see the activity going on there. People playing in water, people on nature’s water-slide, people picnic, people ……… there’s more people than nature!

After spending a little bit of time up there capturing interesting moments, it was time to head town the long flight of stairs. By the way, at this point of time I had no idea where my friends were since I wasn’t carrying a phone. Later on I found out that most of them had left, I manage to see Wesley’s car driving off. So what’s next in my To-Do list? Take a dip!

It was noon by then my wife manage to took a quick dip at a spot near our escape pod…… sorry, car. It wasn’t the best place at the waterfall but it’s enough for a cooling dip. The only thing I didn’t like was that it’s in close proximity to a toilet. We left the place about 20 minutes later.

View The Gallery

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Just Another Day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.